Chapter 458

Happy Birthday to 

Kyanne

and

Jenna

(In order of appearance)

I love, Love, LOVE this photo of Jenna at her wedding and Kyanne's 4-year photo is one of my all-time favorites of her.

I finished my blog last week, then forgot to both publish it and send out notification when I did publish it. If you missed it, scroll down and check it out.

This week Carissa and Chris went to Missoula, Montana to see Pearl Jam and Chris' cousin as long as they were back there. That means we got Reagan and Bear for most of the week. It seemed that Bear wore his cone all week and Reagan wore nothing all week. Here Reagan is swimming in what Bear considers his own private giant water bowl.

A trip to Mud Mountain Dam ended with us huddled in a covered sandbox waiting for the rain to blow over so we could get back to the car. We planned it to be a trip back in time because we used to take the girls there when they were little. We'll have to try that park again another day. 

We headed to Enumclaw for lunch at The Historic Mint which is a historic restaurant built in 1906. They have this cool photo op of angel wings painted on the window.  Reagan loved having her picture taken with them while wearing her Elsa skirt.  

 Reagan loves to ride bronze statues of small animals and this little foal was not exempt from the riding photo opportunity.

Chris cut a birdhouse out of some of their cedar fence boards for Bob and Reagan to build together. It all started out well. Total engagement on both parts.

Reagan got to use the old Book family hammer that came over from the family farm in Sweden with great great (great) grampa Book. Of course it's had the handle replaced 3 times and the hammer heads replaced 2 times since it left Sweden but it's still a bit of Book history.

Bob also used his grandfather Book's hammer to complete the walk through the family tool history.

Soon Bob is working on the birdhouse while Reagan takes a break to have a drink and supervise the construction...

Grampa is taking too long to get their joint project built and Reagan had to lay down and take a break from taking a break.

And, while Grampa put the finishing touches on the birdhouse, Reagan is coloring her name and date onto Grampa's precious garage floor.

My photos are a bit out of order, but I'm okay with that. I hope you are too.  Here is Reagan drinking out of a Mason jar at The Mint. She was kind of puzzled why she was drinking out out of a jar but was thirsty enough not to stop and ask about it.

Reagan found this radio out in the trailer and wanted to know what it was. Whoo. That's a tough one. Just exactly how do you explain a radio to someone that has had the benefit of on demand music?

Next we discussed what the antenna is for and how the radio sounds better when she become part of the antenna herself. 

Because our air-quality was in the unhealthy zone due to California's forest fires and I didn't want Reagan out in the pool, we headed to the mall for some filtered air.

Reagan loves to ride the carousel,

 and pretend Grama actually put quarters in the rides.

The view of a failing mall is always better from a $6 rented race cart. After we sucked up 3 hours of the mall's purified air and all we bought was a snack and a race cart rental, we headed home.

After the trip to the mall, it was on to Menchies where we bought what the Menchie's lady called the "smallest serving of ice cream she'd ever sold".

We came home and Reagan had a quick dip in the pool then out to the garden for a freshly-pulled carrot and back inside for more quiet time activities.

She loved the texture of the kinetic sand and which feels like sand but oozes like slime.  Somehow, despite it's advanced scientific status and as a cool toy, it still got all over the floor like any other sand!

Since Bear spends most of his time in a cone, 

 it only makes sense that Reagan's stuffies also wear cones.

Bear loves to snap and snarl at the hose while he gets a drink. I wantered plants, filled the pool, and watered the dog all at once. There cannot be a bit of tartar on Bear's teeth as hard as I blasted him with the hose. 

 Just like doing jail time, the prisoner marks off another day of confinement while waiting for Mom and Dad to come spring her.

 Prisoners in this facility must work to earn their daily bread.

 Bear also loves himself a freshly-pulled carrot as much as Reagan does. This year, I moved the carrots from the edge of the garden to the middle because Bear would go pull his own carrots out of the garden with his teeth. He loooves carrots. 

While Carissa and Chris went to the Pearl Jam concert in Missoula, Montana,

I was at a Caspar Baby Pants concert here in Auburn. I'd rather be at this concert than at Pearl Jam any day. 

This is Reagan's favorite musician.  Chris Ballew, he was the lead singer for The Presidents of the United States of America before he decided to entertain tots with songs like "My Flea Has Dogs". A much better song selection than anything Pearl Jam had to offer.

I met some of my old Boeing gang for lunch. By "old", I mean old! This was the gang we played baseball with, socialized with, and skydived with. Now look at us. What a bunch. In the back left is Fabio Fantozzi, the only one we regularly keep in contact with and a very good friend to have.

So tomorrow we are heading out for the Olympic Peninsula to see what there is to see. We are all packed up and ready to sport the new vinyl wrap and graphics on our teardrop trailer.

Each time we chose a new place to go to, it would catch fire. Darn. I had my tastebuds all set for Geocaching in Kamloops, Canadia.  But, after some major smoke map consulting, the Olympic Peninsula area appears to be the only place that appears to have any fresh air left. Wish us luck.

My Facebook feed shows that Mary Lou and I went for a beautiful clear-aired hike on Mount Rainier. Oh, I miss that fresh and clear air!

Have as smoke-free of a week as you can!